Esther Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 201644135
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2009
- Location
- Neenah, WI, USA
- Phone
- 9208438083
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Federated Giving Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $297,311
- Expenses
- $169,810
- Assets
- $271,931
- Liabilities
- $6,312
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
18 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CONSTANCE KANITZ (PRESIDENT)
- DAVE FINK (VICE PRESIDENT)
- KATIE OLSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- KATIE OLSON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $58,874 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Faith communities working together to impact justice.
What it reported doing in 2024
Esther received money from the Wisconsin department of heath services as part of a mobilizing communities for a just response grant. We used this money for eight housing advocates with lived experience to lead our homelessness efforts. They are individuals who are formerly incarcerated, struggling with housing insecurity, young adults, immigrants, individuals from the recovery community and the formerly evicted. They are compensated for their work, which is collaborating with their peers about housing insecurity issues, and then meeting regularly as a team for debriefing and training. Members of the team have spoken publicly about their personal experiences and have written articles for the local newspaper. They have organized themselves into a housing advocate team and have taken on the issue of homelessness because it directly impacts them. They want to see public policies that directly benefit them (their self-interests) and those whom they care about.our housing advocates in oshkosh are very engaged in community organizing. They are collecting personal stories from those impacted by inaccessible housing. They collect stories from people at food pantries, homeless shelters, long-term hotels and the recovery community. Those stories will be the basis of their organizing work as they continue in their advocacy work. The grant concluded in may, 2024.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 53
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 47%; rating input score 47
- Program expense ratio: 81.6%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 42.9%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.6; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.7%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -7.7% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 47% of revenue deployed · 81.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $139K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $59K · 18 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 47/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.